Kallyope, a New York startup developing therapeutics for diseases with high unmet needs, has received a $8.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The grant adds to a huge war chest of $479 million Kallyope has raised from venture firms, including Baltimore-based Greenspring Associates. Greenspring’s stake in Kallyope, during its participation in a Series C round, is now held by New York-based StepStone Group after it acquired Greenspring in 2021.
Commercialization Rights
Under a four-year agreement with the Gates Foundation, Kallyope will develop bioactive compounds that can help undernourished pregnant and lactating women who are experiencing so-called environmental enteric dysfunctions (EED). Such compounds are expected to improve maternal, newborn and children’s health. Kallyope will retain the right to commercialize compounds derived from the program as possible therapeutics in other global regions.
“This is a unique, inspiring opportunity for Kallyope to positively impact global health by leveraging our industry-leading research platform, Klarity, which integrates multiple sophisticated technologies to develop transformative therapeutics in the areas of metabolism, gastrointestinal disease, and neurological disorders,” said Kallyope president and CEO Jay Galeota, an industry veteran who previously led Inheris BioPharma.
For 28 years, Galeota served Merck, holding the positions of chief strategy and business development officer and president of Emerging Business toward the end. He holds a Bachelor of Science in biology from Villanova University and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.
Gut-Brain Axis
Kallyope was founded by Nancy Thornberry, presently the company’s chairman, in 2015. She served as its CEO until 2021, and now chairs the company’s Research & Development team. Prior to Kallyope, Thornberry headed Merck’s franchise for diabetes and endocrinology.
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Kallyope focuses on the so-called gut-brain axis to develop medicines for various conditions. The gut is the largest sensory organ in the human body, with a surface area 100 times larger than the skin. It’s also home to more nerve cells than the spinal cord, and most of our immune system, according to the company. “For centuries, science has recognized the relationship between the gut and the brain — but only recently has the scientific community begun to understand the central role that connection plays in governing physiology and behavior,” it adds.
Its Klarity therapeutic platform, Kallyope says, enables an integrated end-to-end process for powerful and repeatable innovation, speeding up exploration and greatly increasing overall probability of success. The company focuses on three lines of therapeutics — metabolism, including type 2 diabetes and obesity; gastrointestine, including conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease, chemotherapy-induced gut injury, food allergies, and celiac disease; and neurological disorders such as migraine.
Kallyope’s backers include Mubadala and The Column Group, Alexandria Venture Investments, Bill Gates, Casdin Capital, Euclidean Capital, Illumina Ventures, Lux Capital, Polaris Partners, Two Sigma Ventures, StepStone Group, DNS Capital, Hartford Healthcare Endowment, Parkwood and Tao Capital Partners.
